"We've got the material to make an album a year" – hmv.com talks to The Amazing Snakeheads

As the hotly tipped Glasgow trio The Amazing Snakeheads prepare to unleash their gutter punk, dark as Turkish coffee debut album Amphetamine Ballads, we caught up with drummer Jordon Hutchison to find out all about it…

Your album Amphetamine Ballads is due out on Monday, how are you feeling ahead of release?

"I've been sitting with this record for over a year now, I'm raring to go, I can't wait to find out what everyone else thinks of it."

You've been sat on it for over a year?

"Yeah, we've had the songs for a lot longer, so it's we're just looking forward to letting people find it. We were in the process of getting it done before we signed to Domino and they wanted a bit of time for the public to get to know us and to put out some singles, get the name out, play some shows, so we're ready."

Was it an album that took a long time to make?

"No, we work pretty quickly. It was two weeks of recording and two weeks of mixing, we're never going to spend six months in the studio, and we'd drive each other mental."

You recorded it all at night right?

"A lot's been made of that, but it just so happened that we work best at night, we like to have a couple of drinks before we go in and play and you feel like a bit of jakey if you do that first thing in the morning. The studio we work at is in this commercial area and you can't make too much noise until later in the day."

A lot of people have said it sounds like a nighttime record, very dark and brooding…

"If that's the case then I'm more than happy with that. It's just how we work, we've never recorded during the day, I don't know what would happen."

Who produced the album?

"Emily McClaren, it's her studio, her and Stuart Evans did it with us, he engineered it, she produced it. When we were looking at studios, we knew we wanted to record analogue, like all the great soul and rock and roll records, also, they're really great people to work with, they push you without pushing you too far."

So how long have some of these songs been around for?

"Some are probably three years old, others are a lot more recent. Songs like 'I'm A Vampire' are quite old, that was probably the second song we wrote together."

How do your songs get written? Are you together in a room?

"We credit each other equally, but usually Dale, our singer, will come up with a guitar melody and then we'll work on it in rehearsal. Occasionally it's a beat or a bass lick, we go with things that work."

How have audiences been responding to the songs live?

"It's been great, especially to the tracks that have been on the radio, crowds seem to love them."

So what's the plan for the rest of the year?

"Lots of touring, then the summer festivals, we want to get out there."

Finally, if this record was recorded a year ago, are you already thinking about album number two?

"Absolutely. We could go and cut another record today, but what's the point? People need to sit with this one. But we're definitely ready to move on quickly. We've got the material to make an album a year."